00:49 America’s missed opportunity to create a peaceful post-Cold-War world8:09 The moment US foreign policy went off track 14:19 Why didn’t the West invest in Russia’s post-Cold War recovery? 22:18 The foreign policy Blob’s continuity across presidential administrations 30:01 Has the American journalism gotten worse in recent decades? Robert Wright (Bloggingheads.tv, The Evolution of God, Nonzero, Why Buddhism Is True) and Jeffrey Sachs (Columbia, The End of Poverty, The Ages of Globalization)....
May 09, 2023•36 min
Subscribe to The Parrot Room at https://patreon.com/parrotroom 0:00 Mickey deflates a DeSantis challenger 10:52 Mickey’s ego-inflating podcast week 14:01 Who was behind the Kremlin drone attack? 18:38 Neocon propaganda outlet busted; Bob vindicated 25:45 Who has the bigger beef with Neera Tanden? 29:30 How bad was the leaked Tucker text about how “white men fight”? 40:03 Parrot room preview: Gordon Lightfoot trivia lightning-round; adjudicating the Ed Sheeran plagiarism case; new Epstein name-dr...
May 06, 2023•44 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.nonzero.org 0:00 Israel’s many issues 2:52 How ugly could Israel’s judicial reform crisis get? 11:11 Are Palestinian citizens of Israel really under “apartheid”? 18:10 The demographic and ideological sources of Israel’s instability 32:44 If the two-state solution is dead, now what? 43:40 How might an increasingly multipolar world affect Israel? 59:22 Why climate change makes Israel-Palestine even more dire Robert Wright (Bloggingh...
May 02, 2023•1 hr 5 min
Subscribe to The Parrot Room at https://patreon.com/parrotroom 0:48 Is MSM giving cheat sheets to Biden? 7:58 Trump says he might skip GOP debates 18:33 Will Tucker make a run for the White House? 27:57 Disney escalates its feud with DeSantis 32:59 Bob: Ukraine’s looming offensive is a bad idea Robert Wright (Bloggingheads.tv, The Evolution of God, Nonzero, Why Buddhism Is True) and Mickey Kaus (kausfiles, The End of Equality). Recorded April 28, 2023. Comments on BhTV: http://bloggingheads.tv/v...
Apr 29, 2023•43 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.nonzero.org 0:00 John’s upcoming book, How States Think: The Rationality of Foreign Policy2:51 Is the US to blame for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine?10:00 Is Putin less rational than John assumes?22:20 Why John is a Russia dove and a China hawk29:50 Does China pose a threat to freedom around the world?36:57 Why John thinks China’s rise threatens American security47:58 Has globalization made great-power peace possible?56:14 Should th...
Apr 25, 2023•1 hr
Subscribe to The Parrot Room at https://patreon.com/parrotroom 0:00 Is DeSantis done for? 9:14 Ro Khanna for president! 13:04 Why Cold War II makes AI scarier 22:45 Is Twitter done for? 27:23 How imminent is a recession, really? 31:52 Ukraine war update 45:06 The Blinken wrinkle in the Hunter Biden laptop story 47:43 Parrot room preview: Mickey’s AI revelation; Can the GOP win over the college crowd?; Is Fetterman out of the woods?; Is a border crisis incoming?; The slow-burn of Tarkovsky’s The ...
Apr 22, 2023•52 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.nonzero.org 0:00 How Roko and Alex wound up debating on the Nonzero Podcast5:05 Could near-term AI disruption be worse than Covid?13:18 Is AI an existential threat? 25:31 How the sci-fi apocalypse scenario might unfold36:42 How is a renegade AI like a man wearing a condom?47:06 Why would an AI want to kill us?55:47 How the Cold War makes AI more dangerous1:09:49 Roko and Alex make final statements before Overtime Robert Wright (Bl...
Apr 18, 2023•1 hr 17 min
Subscribe to The Nonzero Newsletter at https://nonzero.substack.com 1:29 The promise (and perils) of Notes, Substack’s new social media platform10:08 One big way Notes could be a better Twitter24:47 Nikita’s grand vision for Notes—and Substack41:21 User control vs. the allure of algorithms48:09 Is a better culture of discourse possible through Notes?1:06:11 How Notes benefits from elite buy-in1:15:15 Bob’s advice for Substack: Don't be like Microsoft!1:24:40 Towards a civil society Robert Wright...
Apr 17, 2023•1 hr 36 min
00:00 The Biden age issue 5:59 Are Republicans setting the stage for Biden’s re-election? 15:10 Bob: Right-wing “non-interventionists” are rabid China hawks 24:48 The Pentagon’s no good, very leaky week 31:39 Is Clarence Thomas corrupt? 37:50 The New York Times hunts down a leaker 43:39 Elon vs. Matt Taibbi and Substack 48:07 Parrot Room preview: The new legal theory for prosecuting Trump; Biden’s border policy; Mickey vs. Ross Douthat on AI alarmism; government programs Mickey likes; the movie ...
Apr 15, 2023•52 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.nonzero.org 0:36 How freaked out is Michal by current AIs? 9:30 Why "theory of mind" (aka cognitive empathy)—even in humans—is mind-blowing 16:00 Michal’s theory-of-mind experiments with AI 19:49 Bob’s theory-of-mind experiments with AI 29:21 Do large language models construct representations of concepts? 42:26 Does AI have subjective experience? 49:56 What human neural networks do that AI doesn't Robert Wright (Bloggingheads.tv, ...
Apr 11, 2023•1 hr
Subscribe to The Parrot Room at https://patreon.com/parrotroom 0:00 The SBF and Trump indictments: compare and contrast 8:32 Is DeSantis tanking? 15:25 How the Tennessee House controversy could boost Biden 24:06 Unpacking progressive wins in Wisconsin and Chicago 30:58 Is Twitter becoming a banana republic? 49:04 Ukraine war (and NATO) update 59:12 Parrot room preview: Russian pro-war blogger’s strange assassination; Jill Biden’s basketball misstep; Clarence Thomas’s controversial trips; Amazon ...
Apr 08, 2023•1 hr 6 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.nonzero.org 00:51 Paul’s book, The World Crisis and International Law7:25 Should we demand that other countries be as liberal as we are?20:06 What went wrong in Russia after the Soviet Union fell?33:32 How post-Cold war consensus gave way to global fragmentation39:29 Can international law prevent techno-authoritarianism?48:12 Paul’s skepticism about international law57:44 How the knowledge economy could lead to a Chinese Trump Rob...
Apr 04, 2023•1 hr 9 min
Subscribe to The Parrot Room at https://patreon.com/parrotroom 00:00 A common conundrum: How to pay off your porn-star mistress 11:38 Ways to make Ron DeSantis seem human 20:49 Bob: The newest AI has cognitive empathy 28:01 How Cold War II makes AI more dangerous 35:47 Why are traditional American values in decline? 49:20 What foreign policy elites say about Russia-Ukraine behind closed doors 57:07 Parrot Room preview: Something smart Zelensky said; US think tank advocates murder; how the Nashvi...
Apr 01, 2023•1 hr
1:26 Is ChatGPT capable of “theory of mind”5:39 Is it like anything to be ChatGPT?7:44 ChatGPT passes a cognitive empathy test with flying colors.13:19 ChatGPT analyzes cognitive empathy.17:17 ChatGPT flatters Bob22:36 How ChatGPT uses cognitive empathy in everyday life. A transcript of this conversation is available here : Robert Wright’s simulated voice generated using Play.ht. “ChatGPT” simulated voice generated using Descript. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with othe...
Mar 30, 2023•28 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.nonzero.org 0:00 Bob and David reminisce about Bloggingheads3:26 David’s book, American Psychosis: A Historical Investigation of How the Republican Party Went Crazy 9:18 Are Russiagaters moving the goalposts? 20:10 What the Trump team knew about Russian meddling 36:05 The missing “collusion” piece of the Russiagate puzzle 46:54 Why David thinks Russiagate's biggest critics are perpetuating a hoax 58:08 If Russiagaters are right, w...
Mar 28, 2023•1 hr 5 min
0:00 Bob: On foreign policy, there is no real Ron DeSantis 10:28 The difference between right-restrainers and left-restrainers 22:33 The dangerous politics of indicting Trump 29:17 Trump’s new plan to take out the deep state 36:12 Is the war turning in Ukraine’s favor? 47:31 Why did DeSantis change the pronunciation of his name? 53:16 Parrot Room preview: Everything Everywhere All At Once speaks to Bob; SVB fallout not over; banning the word “woke”; Camaro goes out of production—or does it?; lik...
Mar 25, 2023•1 hr
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.nonzero.org 0:00 Richard’s banking and business bona fides 2:51 Was the Silicon Valley Bank crash a harbinger of worse to come? 10:06 What actually caused SVB’s collapse? 18:46 Richard: SVB failed risk management 101 31:41 Costs and benefits of the SVB bailout 38:13 The Fed’s oft-forgotten original role 43:32 Did the deregulation SVB lobbied for doom it? 45:09 Overtime preview: Richard’s career highlights; cognitive empathy in com...
Mar 22, 2023•47 min
Subscribe to The Parrot Room at https://patreon.com/parrotroom 0:00 Mickey’s mind-bending analogy between romance and politics 5:11 Bob triggered by DeSantis’s “territorial dispute” line about Russia-Ukraine 21:29 How to prevent the next bank collapse? 32:03 Was “wokeness” behind SVB’s demise? 36:56 Ukraine war update 47:53 Are Democrats ditching Israel? 51:50 Winners and losers of Iran-Saudi détente 58:15 Parrot room preview: Mickey’s quibble with Bob’s AI piece; SBF news; Silicon Valley’s camp...
Mar 18, 2023•1 hr 4 min
0:25 Ananyo’s book, The Man from the Future, about game theory inventor and polymath John von Neumann 6:38 Early life as a mathematical wunderkind 10:16 Von Neumann’s foundational contributions to quantum physics 24:39 Was entanglement as "spooky" to von Neumann as it was to Einstein? 33:46 Building—and reckoning with—the atomic bomb 47:22 Did von Neumann really want to nuke the USSR? 52:30 Why was early game theory so zero-sum–focused? 1:05:44 Influence on Turing, the open source movement, and ...
Mar 14, 2023•1 hr 58 min
Subscribe to The Parrot Room at https://patreon.com/parrotroom 4:24 Biden’s soak-the-rich budget: big news or borefest? 16:03 How Biden insulting Xi Jinping endangers Ukraine 23:38 Bob finds another reason Biden shouldn’t run for re-election 27:54 Ukraine war update 35:53 Nordstream’s hobbyist saboteurs 43:05 Tucker Carlson outed as anti-Trump phony 52:00 Parrot Room preview: Gavin Newsom takes on Walgreens; Twitter community notes annoy Mickey; Semafor's China racket; Bob’s Washington Post lab ...
Mar 11, 2023•58 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.nonzero.org 1:46 Paul’s new book, Psych: The Story of the Human Mind 12:13 Does psychology need more evolutionary thinking? 20:33 Freud and Skinner and parts in between 30:47 Mind-body dualism’s enduring intuitive appeal 33:16 ChatGPT and the human mind: compare and contrast 38:22 Are cognitive biases overblown? 47:59 A brief note about the podcast 51:24 Implicit biases, memory, and other topics covered in the book Robert Wright (...
Mar 08, 2023•55 min
Subscribe to The Parrot Room at https://patreon.com/parrotroom 0:00 Mickey celebrates good week for JD Vance, Ron DeSantis 11:37 The Biden admin’s “all sticks, no carrots” approach to foreign policy 15:55 Is China’s plummeting birth rate a problem? 17:16 Will Bibi wag the dog? 31:07 Will AI kill the journalism star? 36:42 Ukraine war update 44:11 Alarmism about a China-Russia axis 47:04 Parrot room preview: more Ukraine; Dilbert creator gets canceled; why the kids aren’t alright; Will student lo...
Mar 04, 2023•51 min
00:37 Paul’s new book, Four Battlegrounds: Power in the Age of Artificial Intelligence 11:42 Will AIs replace humans in future wars? 29:24 China as an AI superpower 39:29 Will Beijing spread high-tech authoritarianism globally? 48:51 How useful is the “democracy versus autocracy” framework? 54:01 Why Paul’s worried about a race to the bottom in AI safety 1:00:00 Tom Cruise can’t hold a candle to AI pilots Robert Wright (Bloggingheads.tv, The Evolution of God, Nonzero, Why Buddhism Is True) and P...
Feb 28, 2023•1 hr 4 min
Subscribe to The Parrot Room at https://patreon.com/parrotroom 0:00 Washington Post highlights a cost of US hypocrisy 6:54 Will China push for peace—or fund Russia’s war effort (or both)? 17:49 Can Trump use Biden’s support for Ukraine against him? 28:42 Russia’s offensive, Ukraine’s rope-a-dope 37:59 Bob’s evolving view of America’s role in the Maidan Revolution 44:43 The US vows to back Israel if it attacks Iran 47:32 Parrot Room preview: AI updates; Republicans and Social Security; How Blobbi...
Feb 24, 2023•50 min
01:25 Coleman’s definition of “wokeness”—and why he’s against it 13:07 Poverty or privilege: Which predicts wokeness among black Americans? 22:46 How much progress has America made since Jim Crow? 32:17 Why writers in particular are haunted by their past 41:59 How racists and criminals are made 51:25 Does "hip-hop culture exist"—and is it bad? 1:02:22 Coleman diversifies his controversy portfolio Robert Wright (Bloggingheads.tv, The Evolution of God, Nonzero, Why Buddhism Is True) and Coleman Hu...
Feb 21, 2023•1 hr 7 min
Subscribe to The Parrot Room at https://patreon.com/parrotroom 0:00 How should Republicans counter Biden’s blue-collar messaging?14:19 The disturbing thing balloon-gate reveals about the Dems23:58 The Fetterman health crisis30:42 Twitter’s Elon algorithm39:52 Are women more conciliatory than men?42:47 Is Biden pushing Zelensky toward the negotiating table?56:29 An underappreciated risk of arming Ukraine59:26 Parrot room preview: Bob drops some hip-hop knowledge; an AI-war reversal and the danger...
Feb 18, 2023•1 hr 4 min
0:31 Norman’s new book, I’ll Burn That Bridge When I Get to It!: Heretical Thoughts on Identity Politics, Cancel Culture, and Academic Freedom 10:26 How Norman exposed a bestselling book as a hoax 18:54 The price Norman paid for taking on Alan Dershowitz 28:08 What effects has “wokeness” had on academia? 33:46 Pronouns and the perils of linguistic prescriptivism 47:43 Who's pushing identity politics on the left? And why? 57:54 A few unkind words about Bari Weiss 1:02:51 Norman: Ibram X. Kendi is...
Feb 14, 2023•1 hr 10 min
Subscribe to The Parrot Room at https://patreon.com/parrotroom 00:00 Why Biden’s big speech has Bob worried 9:15 Did the US blow up the Nord Stream pipeline? 18:36 Trump accuses DeSantis of grooming 25:46 With friends like Joe Rogan, Ilhan Omar doesn’t need enemies 36:16 The latest from the Twitter Files: new dirt on the Blob 48:45 Biden takes on Xi, seems a little unhinged 56:12 Why more people are concerned about Ukraine’s chances 1:03:30 Parrot Room preview: Did the West block Russia-Ukraine ...
Feb 11, 2023•1 hr 10 min
1:02 Gabor’s new book The Myth of Normal, about trauma and mental and physical illness in modern Western society7:40 Are we all victims of a “toxic” culture?14:09 Gabor’s early years in Nazi- and then Soviet-occupied Hungary21:30 What Gabor thinks standard theories of addiction get wrong24:02 Can trauma ever be a good thing?26:34 Was Bob’s childhood traumatic? And if so, how?39:46 Trauma, attachment, and authenticity46:57 Is modern society hostile to community?53:43 The difference between health...
Feb 07, 2023•1 hr 16 min
Subscribe to The Parrot Room at https://patreon.com/parrotroom 0:00 Is the 2024 race shaping up to be a political Groundhog Day?16:05 Ilhan Omar and the Israel criticism tightrope29:46 Does the left or right look worse on recent Russiagate disclosures?37:39 A question about the DNC email hack41:46 Ukraine war update: Is time on Russia’s side?48:44 Is the Biden admin angling for a peace deal with Putin?1:00:34 Parrot Room preview: Evil—the show and the concept; the Tyre Nichols killing; Gaetz’s b...
Feb 04, 2023•1 hr 7 min
